Week-long fire destroys hay barn

RICHMOND – It took a full week for firefighters to put out a large barn fire south of Ottawa, as pockets of hay sporadically burst into flames.

Arnold Schouten and son Martin were operating a hay grinder when it began smoking, shortly after 5 p.m. on Wed. April 16 on Malakoff Road, south of Richmond. They were hauling it out of the barn when it caught fire and lit up the 300 ft. by 60 ft. barn like a gigantic matchbox, destroying 1,000 large, square bales.

"When it started smoking, we pulled it out immediately," Arnold said. But the fire "took off in the straw. The wind took it up the wall and it went the whole length of the barn in a minute."

Arnold called 911 but "by the time he got off the phone it was too late," said his son, Martin, who raced to drive tractors away from the barn. The fire moved so quickly it melted the tractor warning signs on the fenders. "He’s (Martin) lucky to be alive," said one of the farm labourers. No one could get to the large, nearly new combine that was parked next to the barn as the heat was too intense.

The next day the combine was almost totally black, looking like an old relic. The windows in the cab were broken and the metal twisted. As for the barn, it had practically disappeared from the landscape and firefighters and a Farmers Forum photographer tramped around on what was left – a massive bed of hay, with smoking clumps.

Two firefighters with hoses waded through the hay bedding, watering down endless hay pockets that burst into flames. Thick clouds of smoke continued to waft across the corn field and into the neighbouring dairy farm owned by Arnold’s cousins Ed and Rick and Ed’s son Chris, at Cornerview Farms.

Firefighters said that the night before they feared Cornerview Farms might catch fire. Referring to his cousin’s farm, Arnold said: "it was a hot fire and strong breeze so (firefighters) put trucks in his yard."

Five days after the barn burned down, the fire flared up again. Arnold was down the road when he saw the black smoke of rubber tires engulfed in flames.

"There was dry wind and sun every day, enough to dry the top off," Arnold said. "If there were any embers it started again. There was all kinds of water in the straw itself but the top would dry off."

The Schouten farm, which includes Arnold’s brother Adrian, milks 400 Holsteins. They figure the damage is between $500,000 and $700,000. They plan to rebuild.